Author: Julia

I am a retired software solutions architect. I have been married to my husband, Bruce, for over forty years. We went full-time RVing for 3.5 years and saw much of the United States. After deciding to stop RVing, we bought a ranch house halfway up a hill on five acres. After Bruce and I talked about names for our five acres, we settled on Blackberry Homestead as a homage to the wild blackberries on the hill. We are working on creating our homestead. I love cooking and enjoy sharing recipes. I am also an artist, and I’ll share my current projects. Gardening and reading are my favorite hobbies.

Tuna and Egg Salad Sandwich

When I first had a tuna fish salad sandwiches out, it didn’t have egg in it. I soon realized eggs were not normally added to tuna fish salad. I wondered if it was just something common to the South, but when I searched online, tuna fish sandwiches don’t list eggs as and ingredient. My mother […]

Just a Day in the Life of Nox

January 15, 2021 Nox was standing up, waiting for me in her crate when I cam downstairs this morning. She ran over to her water bowl and drank a bit of water. I sat down at my desk to start work and pulled my blanket over my legs. Nox curled up on the blanket. She […]

What’s Your Dog’s Superdog Name?

January 11, 2021 I feel so much better today. I hope I am finally over the bronchitis I’ve been fighting for three weeks. This weekend I took it very easy and spent most of the weekend reading, with Nox snuggled up against me. Bruce went by and petted Nox. He jokingly said, “While Nox might […]

Treat in Bone

January 5, 2021 I haven’t been able to get rid of the bronchitis. I am on my second round of antibiotics. Today, I am once again just laying on the couch with Nox. She brought her bone to play with while keeping me company. There is a treat in the middle of the bone!

Happy New Year!

January 1, 2021 It feels strange to write 2021. Parts of 2020 dripped by slowly and parts rushed by leaving me wondering what happened. Retirement is rushing up and we still haven’t bought our RV. I hope we can find it soon, since I want to live out of my vehicle and 5th wheel, camping […]

Blueberry, Lemon and Ginger Smoothie

This morning, I pulled out my 30 year old Vitamix (Vita-mixer) and made a smoothie. My Vitamix still works great after 30 years and I am taking it with us when we go RVing full time. Thirty years ago, I was a stay at home mom with a huge garden. I made tomato sauce by […]

Ethiopian Greens for New Year’s Day

As New Year rolls around, my thoughts drift back to my Southern childhood. We always had at least one of the following greens, turnip greens, mustard greens or collard greens, on New Year’s Day. Very often turnip greens and mustard greens were cooked together. If we had collard greens, they weren’t mixed with another type […]

Resting with Nox

December 28, 2020 Last Monday, I went for a COVID test, the one were you swab the inside of your mouth, and it came back negative. Since I continue to have a hacking cough, today I went to the doctor to see if I have bronchitis. The doctor’s office did another COVID test and this […]

The Great Conjunction

December 22, 2020 Bruce and I were excited about the great conjunction. We lucked out, the sky was clear, so we could see Jupiter and Saturn appear so close together. The day before, it had been cloudy, so we weren’t sure we would be able to see it. Bruce got out his two telescopes and […]

Christmas Buns

I am reposting this; it was previously posted in December of 2019. Normally, at this time of year, I make these Christmas Buns and take them into the office for the various teams I work with to enjoy. I always get requests for the recipe. I’ve even found a note in the pan that said, […]